I wish they would have recorded a couple more albums between Don't Look Back and Third Stage, instead of fighting. I remember hearing Amanda, from Third Stage, for the first time on the radio, after I had literally worn out cassettes of Boston and Don't Look Back. My buddies and I were listening to KBPI while driving up to Nederland in my sweet 1979, hail-damaged VW Scirocco; and the DJ said something along the lines of, "Here's the first song in a long, long time from Boston..." We all got quiet, and stayed that way until the song was over. As soon as it ended, there was a chorus of, "Dude, that was AWESOME!"

I wish they would have recorded a couple more albums between Don't Look Back and Third Stage, instead of fighting. I remember hearing Amanda, from Third Stage, for the first time on the radio, after I had literally worn out cassettes of Boston and Don't Look Back. My buddies and I were listening to KBPI while driving up to Nederland in my sweet 1979, hail-damaged VW Scirocco; and the DJ said something along the lines of, "Here's the first song in a long, long time from Boston..." We all got quiet, and stayed that way until the song was over. As soon as it ended, there was a chorus of, "Dude, that was AWESOME!"

It was SO awesome wasn't it? Brad Delp's voice was a force of nature ... maybe the most underrated rock singer ever.

What happened was, aside from 4 or 5 songs Delp co-wrote with Scholz, Scholz wrote all of Boston's material. Plus he's a music producer and recording technology pioneer, Masters in mechanical engineering from MIT, holds several patents, not to mention he's a guitar and keyboard stud. So, just like Aeromith's Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, Scholz and Delp were Boston, the other guys were basically side musicians (something Scholz pointed out in one of I believe three lawsuits he's filed over the years against Barry Goudreau. Click to read just page one. Goudreau and bassist Fran Sheehan played on just two songs on the debut record. The rest was all Scholz and Delp).

Problem was that, for all his oceans of talent, Scholz was not a prolific writer. The debut album used up more than half the songs he'd written over ten years. They just ran out of songs. The eight years, that's e-i-g-h-t interminable-endless-years between Don't Look Back and Third Stage was only part legal issues with the record label, mostly it was a shortage of material.

Eight years is a crap-load long time, the other guys by that time had convinced themselves they were rock stars, so after 4, 5, 6 whatever years waiting, Goudreau gathered the other three together behind Scholz/ back, and they rehearsed and recorded and planned a tour of some kind ... didn't tour or release anything, but did enough that Scholz went ballistic when he found out. He basically fired Barry Goudreau, Fran Sheehan and Sib Hashian, though he and Delp made amends. Kinda convenient seeing that the voice was mandatory to continuing the band. Third Stage was 90% Scholz, Delp and original drummer Jim Masdea. After that, no songs ... e v e r . . .

Bradley Delp, though ... to have fallen from such transcendent heights of creativity all the way to such depths of depression and loneliness. An age-old story maybe, but a pity nonetheless. Boston newspaper wrote that Scholz and Delp did not get along, inferring their relationship had something to do with Delp's suicide. Scholz sued the paper and lost, but something tells me a guy who sues and grudges like Tom Scholz - he may have "forgiven" Delp for his part in the treason - but I wouldn't be surprised if he adopted an undercurrent of hostility over the years against Delp, who by all accounts I've read was a puppy dog of a personality.